Kamela Portuges

1963 - 2021

Kamela Portuges
Kamela Portuges-Robbins (1963-2021), long time resident of Sonoma, unexpectedly passed away on October 21, 2021, of natural causes. She was visiting friends in Eureka at the time.
Kamela was a Renaissance woman – a talented puppeteer, a gifted artist and writer, and a passionate teacher. Words cannot express our sadness at losing her, and the puppet community will miss her enthusiasm for puppetry and the arts, her "can do" attitude, and her willingness to mentor and share with others.
Kamela was born in Manteca to Paul and Barbara Portuges. The family grew when younger sister, Shelly, was born. The family moved to Cottonwood in 1981 where Kamela took on the summer job of helping Paul build their new home.
Always an overachiever, Kamela was an A student in her academic classes while also participating in sports and school plays. At age 16, she enrolled at Shasta Community College, and then transferred to Humboldt State where in 1987, she earned a double Masters degree in Theater and Business Marketing at age 22
In 1986, Kamela attended a San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild (SFBAPG) workshop in Santa Rosa. While at the event, she met Lee Armstrong who was working on Jim Henson's "Fraggle Rock" at the time. Lee was presenting a workshop on TV puppetry, and was the first person Kamela had met who'd managed to earn a living as a puppeteer. The fledgling partners hit it off, Kamela was inspired, and her career choice made.
In 1989, Kamela and Lee formed Images in Motion Inc. (IIM) which has specialized in puppetry for TV and film for over 30 years. During that long association, Kamela received three regional Emmys for her work as a designer, writer, and puppeteer, all before the age of 30.
In 2002, Kieron Robbins was taking art classes at the Santa Rosa JC when Kieron's father, Dave, asked Kamela to look at his sculpture. Soon, Images in Motion hired him to build puppet sets, which lead to puppet construction, animation, radio and cable control, molding, casting, 3D printing, and marrying Kamela in 2008.
For over 30 years, she helped build Images in Motion into a successful and thriving business. She wrote scripts, created puppets, and performed and edited puppet videos among other creative efforts. Kamela supervised the mold, cast, and 3D print services for Pixar and other major Bay Area animation companies. She was fearless in acquiring skills as varied as welding and fabrication, building radio control mechanisms, computer modeling, and 3D printer repair.
For a time, Kamela was a sculptor to the stars. Her long list of celebrity dolls includes Rita Hayworth, Pamela Anderson, Venus and Serena Williams, Britney Spears, Kate Winslet, the Spice Girls and more. However, her most well known faces appeared in the cult classic "Being John Malkovich", for which she sculpted the faces of Malkovich, John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener and supervised the fabrication of the marionettes.
In recent years, Kamela began writing and illustrating children's books. Always one to dive right in, she soon became the North Bay Regional Illustrator Coordinator for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators.
Kamela was a past President of the SFBAPG. Beginning in 1990, she taught workshops, primarily to adults, on puppet construction and performance at national, regional and local puppet festivals, and for schools and service groups. In 2017, she became a Lecturer in the Theater Department at UC Santa Cruz.
As IIM's artistic director, she was instrumental in winning five national Tellys, two Communicator awards, a Silver Smokey from the USDA Forest Service and more, for their TV productions. Her film credits include "The Fly 2", "James and the Giant Peach", "Being John Malkovich", "Monkeybone", "Bicentennial Man", "Pushing Dead", and "Illusion of Life", as well as work on PBS, numerous commercials, and client videos.
Kamela will be deeply missed by her husband, Kieron Robbins, her sister and brother in law, Shelly and Odd Rustand, their daughter, Aubrey, her mother in law, Sarah Robbins, and her sister in law, Kemplen, her business partner, Lee Armstrong, as well as her many friends and co-workers.
Kamela is predeceased by Paul and Barbara Portuges. The family appreciates the services of Duggan's Mission Chapel, Sonoma.
Donations may be made in her memory through the SFBAPG to further the studies of Guild puppeteers: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=6MBSK7QLK24K4
There will be a celebration of life in the future, but no date has yet been set.
Kamela considered being able to do what she loved to be her greatest achievement. She would be disappointed to leave us so soon. She had so much she still wanted to do!